Pink and green, lobsters and whales, saddle shoes.. now take all those preppy icons and add some wacky proportions, outlandish accessories, a few gnomes and a colorful picket face and you’ve got Thom Browne’s undeniably surreal Spring-Summer 2019 Menswear Show on the catwalk in Paris.

Thom Browne 2019 Spring Summer Menswear

The Thom Browne 2019 Spring Summer Menswear collection was like a trip down memory lane for recovered “Preppies”…only on acid. Oversized coats, wide leg pants and straw bowlers topped with Gerbera daises walked down the runway at Paris Fashion Week to David Bowie’s “There Is a Happy Land.” The surreal event took place on a real turf-lined catwalk complete with a child’s play house, bearded gnomes and a picket fence.

Vogue called the collection “acid-envisaged, couture-level, hyper-colored realizations of preppy White Anglo-Saxon Protestant America.” and that pretty much nails it.

In the new collection, Browne combined nautical icons with pin-striping, checks and bold colors. Varied textiles, many embroidery-embellished, were turned into disproportionate vests, skirts, trousers, shorts, cardigans, jackets and overcoats.

Preppy staples such as seersucker, pinstripes, plaid, argyle, even pearls could be found throughout the collection.

The Accessories

The ensembles were punctuated by mismatched socks, brightly colored platform Saddle Shoes, horn-rimmed glasses and a varied collection of bags and briefcases.

“We started with the gnomes because they are funny, just nonsense. . . . It really was taking where it all began and playing with the proportions of the season. I think a lot of people don’t know where it goes in real life. . . .” This was real life? “That’s why you had the frames to see the world through my eyes! You didn’t get that?” Ahhh! “It was just nonsense and ridiculous and I wanted it all to be that. And Pride . . . a world where everybody gets along.” – Thom Browne

See the entire Thom Browne 2019 Spring Summer Menswear collection here